


Perfect Clarity

by NarutoDays (DAYS8)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Marching Band, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Awkwardness, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Flirting, Meet-Cute, NaruHina Secret Santa 2020, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Romantic Fluff, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28239831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DAYS8/pseuds/NarutoDays
Summary: 1. % Sweet - What's a guy to do when he has a cute customer?2. Notice Me - Hinata's oblivious, too.  Naruto can't stand it when she's looking elsewhere.3. Flirting 101 (or something) - Naruto wants a certain prima ballerina to look his way.4. Merry Kiss-mas - Hinata and Naruto accidentally exchange gifts...A series of fluffy short one-shots of Naruto and Hinata making each other blush in Modern AU.Written for badluckbrebis (Imanga) for Tumblr's NaruHina Secret Santa 2020!!
Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 81
Kudos: 126





	1. % Sweet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Imanga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imanga/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What's a guy to do when he has a cute customer? Bubble tea shop AU.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you like this, Imanga!!! I have more planned for you!
> 
> These one-shots will all be loosely inspired from instances in my life,, so I know that's not the meaning of "slice of life" like you asked for, but uh, these are slices of... my... life.  
> This first one actually happened at the tea shop that I frequent. (NOT to me, I was just sitting there doing my schoolwork when the worker just flung himself into the store, word-for-word like a shoujo manga, and I thought it was one of the absolute cutest things I had ever witnessed in my life).
> 
> Anyway!!! Please, please enjoy the NaruHina fluff.

With a gallon of milk in each hand, Naruto saunters down the road from the nearby supermarket back to Kyuu-Tea, his part-time.

The sun’s finally starting to set, sending a golden hue across the cooling afternoon. It’s been good weather. Which means they’ll have a good amount of customers heading in for a boba drink before dinner. Hopefully, _that girl_ , too-

The sound of a car door shutting closed draws his attention.

 _Her._ Long, dark blue hair and skin as creamy as genmaicha milk tea.

His heart thumps almost violently in his chest like a gunshot at a race. He’s making a mad dash back to the shop, throwing the door open, bursting in, and he announces to Sasuke with an uncontrolled yell, "SHE'S COMING! I saw her!!"

Sasuke stands straighter behind the counter with a concerned and curious, “Who?”

But he’s already rushing into the back to shove the milk into the fridge before flying back out to the floor. “The girl from last night,” he gasps as he frantically straightens chairs and takes panicked glances at each table for any stray straw wrappers lying around.

Sasuke’s brows are high on his forehead as Naruto runs back behind the counter and pushes him away from the register.

And hardly five seconds later, he sees _her_ appearing on the other side of the windows, pulling the door open, laughing with a friend with double buns. The friend’s got that street-sporty look that he’d usually be into, but _the girl_ is just soo pretty...and especially after what Sakura told him...

Naruto can’t help smiling stupidly at her.

She glances at him, and her gaze dances away, a shy smile coloring her sweet face. She approaches the counter, her eyes focused on the menu, but he’s quite certain that she’s already decided.

“Hi,” he greets.

“Hello,” and finally, she looks at him head-on, and _damn_ , he’s really never seen eyes like hers before in his life.

“The same as last time?” he asks.

Those light eyes widen in surprise, and he can’t help mentally patting himself on the back. “Oh, yes,” she murmurs in soft tones that leave him wanting to hear more.

“Medium Winter Melon Tea Latte?”

She nods.

“With light sugar?”

She nods again, that blush on her cheeks almost good enough to compensate for her silence.

He taps her order onto the touchscreen. “...And small boba?”

“Yes, thank you.”

He grins despite knowing that he’s way too excited about such a customary phrase. “That’ll be $4.95.”

She nods again, opening her purse and retrieving a $5 bill for him.

“Thank you...here’s your change.”

She takes it and promptly drops the nickel into the tip jar.

He’s still smiling at her even as she turns around.

She’s cutely biting her lips, and he hears her quietly remark to her friend, “He remembered my order.”

“What, really?” the other girl gasps.

He smiles wider and steps away from the register, super proud of himself. “Sasuke, can you get the next one for me?”

“Oh.” Sasuke hands him the plastic cup for _that girl_ before taking his spot at the register back.

And Naruto gets to work, all the while wondering if she’s watching him or not.

 _Gods_ , he really hopes she’s into him like Sakura said she is.

Sealing the lid to the cup, he grabs a big straw for her and neglects calling out that her finished order is ready in favor of taking it directly to the table where she and her friend are seated. “Here’s your Winter Melon Tea Latte.”

Again, she looks at him with that incredibly surprised expression. “O-oh, thank you.”

“No problem.” He grins for a second before turning around, but disappointment quickly settles in. That’s pretty much the end of their interactions for the rest of the night.

The number of customers starts picking up again, as he predicted.

But his straying gaze to her table doesn’t go unnoticed. She catches him every so often, blushes, and looks away.

He hopes that he’s not coming off as creepy. It's just that he can’t stop thinking about her.

And who can really blame him? When they came last night, Sakura quickly told him before they left the shop that her friend thinks he’s _hot_!

Hot, as in like, should he try to pursue her? Or was that just a passing, shallow compliment?

But they’re here again and…

Turning to Sasuke, he blurts out his conundrum in as hushed an urgent whisper as he can. “Should I try talking to her?”

But Sasuke seems not nearly as invested in this as he should be. “If you wanna talk to her, then talk to her.”

He wishes he wasn’t such a dork. Then maybe he’d have the nonchalant attitude necessary to just walk up to girls and start hitting on them.

They could leave at any second now. And now is as good as it’s going to get while there’s a lull in the work.

So sucking up his self-consciousness, he strides over to their table again.

She’s looking at him shyly.

“Uh, hi,” he starts. Really smooth of him.

Her friend is making eyes between the two of them, and, honestly, this is the most awkward thing he’s ever tried to do in his life.

“Hello,” she greets.

The friend also says, “Hi.”

“I heard you-” He abruptly stops. What’s he actually trying to say here, that he heard she thinks he’s hot?! “-I, I’m friends with Sakura, and uh-”

She’s nodding.

Thankfully, the friend intervenes. “Yeah, Sakura wanted to show us this place where her friends work. You guys have good tea.”

“Thanks.” He awkwardly smiles, wondering how he got himself into this mess. Why can’t he talk like a normal person right now? “Glad you guys liked it enough to come back again.”

 _She_ smiles and nods.

“Uh…” Now what. Now what is he supposed to do. “...Can I have your number? O-or, I could give you mine if you’d be more comfortable…”

She’s nodding, taking out her phone.

“...with that… um…” He watches her unlock her phone and open up a new contact page. “My number is…”

She taps in his phone number, and he really hopes she’ll actually contact him, and that he’s not going to be the next fool in their girl-talk.

But with that sweetly shy look, she peeks back up at him, and his hope multiplies ten-fold. He must be doing something right for her to look at him like that...

“Um...what was your name again?” she nearly whispers.

Embarrassed heat slams into his face and beats down at his neck. “Oh!" He really is a fool of all fools. "I’m Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki. Sorry…”

She shakes her head, a small smile playing at her lips as she enters his name into her phone.

“A-and _your_ name?” he ventures to ask. He wishes he could start this whole conversation over. They are _definitely_ going to be laughing about him after this.

“I’m Hinata. And-” She looks at her friend. “-This is Tenten.”

Tenten raises a hand up from the table as if to separate herself from their conversation. “Don’t mind me.”

He grimaces in renewed embarrassment, muttering an apology that he’s not sure the other girl heard over Hinata’s much more embarrassed cry of, “Tenten!”

The buns girl is just laughing at them.

“So uh, Hinata,” he redirects, “Text me sometime?”

She nods, her cheeks adorably flushed. “I am. Right now.”

Unchecked, stupid joy floods him, and he knows he's smiling way too much to look cool. “Great, thanks.”

The little bell at the door chimes as more customers walk in.

He has to get back to work. But first, he makes sure to seal this with a promise. “I’ll talk to you later, then?"

She nods easily, and he turns around to give Sasuke a victorious grin.

Back behind the counter, his phone vibrates in his pocket, and a quick glance shows a short message: _“Hello this is Hinata Hyuuga :)”_

A flashed smile at Hinata, a wave of his phone to show that he got her message, and she’s blushing that adorable smile back at him. _“Thanks for texting me back,”_ he taps out and sends before he finally starts focusing on making drinks.

Only a few minutes later, he notices them cleaning up, getting ready to leave.

“Thank you!” he shouts out.

She turns, mouthing a “thank you” in return, with that sweet smile that dazzles him each time, and he can already tell she’s exactly what he wants.

Even if her boba tea is 25% sweetness, _Hinata_ is definitely 125% extra sugar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D  
> I hope you liked it, Imanga!! Please stay tuned for more...
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	2. Notice Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's oblivious, too. Naruto can't stand it when she's looking elsewhere.  
> Kaitenzushi Restaurant AU.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this one is a little more slice-of-life-y.

Please read while imagining a setting like the picture below. I tried to describe it in the story, and it was kind of hard. 

Please enjoy the embarrassing NaruHina fluff!

* * *

Color-coded plates carrying perfectly formed nigiri sushi float by on the revolving belt beside her. Kiba, sitting straight across from her, grabs gleaming salmon, tuna, tamagoyaki, unagi, and hamachi sushi for herself, Shino, and Tenten quickly from the belt before the plates sail away to the next table...

Sakura abruptly turns around and kneeling over the booth divider, bonks him on the head with her fist to scold, “Hey! Kiba! Stop hogging all the good ones!”

Kiba giggles soo unapologetically, and Tenten claps her hands with glee.

Naruto, who’s sitting across from Sakura in the other booth, stands, points accusingly at him, and argues, “I wanna switch! It’s not fair!”

...Is it her imagination? Did he look at her once, then twice, before he huffily sat down again?

It must be just her own crushing-hard heart talking. She’s in his line of vision, and Kiba was definitely trying to hide from their anger, so it’s natural that Naruto looked at her.

Kiba’s eyes shine mischievously as the spicy tuna piled high on inarizushi come their way.

“Kiba-kun…” Hinata whispers, shaking her head in hopes of deterring him from his plans.

Kiba sighs, “Fine, fine.” He raises his voice so that the other booth can hear him, too, to say, “Hinata’s taking pity on you guys!”

She can hear Ino and Sakura cheering her name, and she looks past Kiba’s side and…

Blue eyes are trained right on her.

She blinks, and he’s looking determinedly at the spicy tuna coming his way.

 _No, no_. She reminds herself that there’s no way he was looking at her for the purpose of just looking. He must have been looking at her because Kiba was talking about her. And he’s probably just super hungry because Kiba was taking all the plates off the belt before they could get to them, and he was watching the sushi coming, and she happens to be in his line of view because she’s also next to the belt…

Kiba and the rest of her table forget about torturing their other friends, and they tuck into their sushi happily.

Minutes pass.

Conversations happen.

Naruto is watching the sushi an awful lot.

The way his head is _tilted_ to see the sushi farther down the line...closer to her...not just passing by his own booth…

Is that normal…?

Why does she feel like she can feel his eyes…?

To test what could just be a trick of her peripheral vision, she glances directly his way.

Meeting blue.

Heat blooms from her chest, definitely staining her cheeks that uncontrollable tell-tale red, and he’s straightening up, gaze averting back to his own tablemates.

She pulls her own attention off of him to find Kiba and Shino scrutinizing her, then Kiba’s grin stretching wide, his prominent canine teeth way too threatening, and before she can deny the implications of such a knowing expression, he’s turning to peek through the space beside his bench.

“HOhhhh,” he exclaims, snickering, his whole back obviously trembling with laughter, and turning back to face her, he continues, “someone’s having too much fun.”

Tenten leans forward, “Huhh? What’s happening?”

“It’s not what you think!” Hinata quickly tries to argue.

“Oh??” And Tenten is leaning into her, craning her neck to see what Kiba saw, but then she seems to put two and two together as she almost stands up to see over Kiba and Shino’s bench.

“Naruto’s flirting with her,” Shino concludes in a tone much too matter-of-fact.

“No, he’s not!” Hinata practically hisses, trying to quell both the blow-up at her own table and the fire sizzling her face, but a quieter part of herself begs for it to be true. And in her panic, she glances toward Naruto to make sure he’s not hearing _any_ of this.

 _Why_ is he leaning to look at her again?? She’s so red, and he looks too interested, and _is he smiling?!_

She covers her face with her hands and wonders for the millionth time how he doesn’t seem to know his effect on her.

Kiba kneels up on his bench cushion. “Naruto, look at what you’re doing to poor Hinata!”

She hears him go, “What?” and she doesn’t know what to do with herself. Her stressed hands wave in front of her face, and she now knows that she has the entire attention from the other table, judging by the sudden increase in volume.

A waitress comes by, and Sakura and Ino promptly sit down again.

Divine intervention.

The waitress asks, “Do you all need anything?”

“Oh no,” Kiba laughs, “we’re good.”

The waitress nods and moves on to exert her pressure onto the other booth.

And finally, Hinata feels like she has the presence of mind to calm down. “Kiba-kun!” she scolds in a hushed whisper, but no one is on her side.

Both Tenten and Shino are laughing with him.

She makes a deep, long sigh, and against her better judgment, just to make sure he’s _not_ looking at her anymore, she glances over at Naruto.

He’s not looking.

She hates herself for being disappointed.

But just that quickly, his eyes slide toward her, his smile widens adorably, and she’s too shocked at being caught to look away, and he’s _waving_ at her.

 _Huh?_ Does he actually expect her to wave back?

Kiba’s looking at her incredulously. He stands up again despite already getting in trouble with the establishment, and he points at Naruto. “You guys should just sit next to each other already!”

“We can see each other through the chairs!” Naruto explains happily.

And she really doesn’t know how her crush can be so oblivious, but Sasuke and Sakura deal with it anyway, saying, “We already know, you idiot!”

“Oh.”

“You want me to switch places with you so that you can sit across from her?” Kiba offers.

“Ohh...no…? We’re pretty much done eating anyway.”

The angelic waitress comes by again. “Did you need anything?”

Kiba hesitates this time, looks around the table at the stacked plates, and asks, “Is everyone done eating?”

Hinata nods her head vehemently.

“Then we’ll have the bill.”

It’s with great relief that she pulls out her wallet. This is the most chaotic sushi lunch she’s ever had in her life, and she doesn’t think her heart can handle anymore.

If _this_ is how it’s going to be when she’s _not_ sitting by Naruto, then maybe she shouldn’t try to avoid him next time.

Next time, she’ll just sit with him like Sakura was furtively trying to do for her! If she sits by him next time, although she'll be a hot mess, she at least won’t have to suffer through such an extent of nonsense again! She’ll definitely be shy and quieter than she already is, and she might have trouble focusing on her food, but that would be infinitely better than subjecting herself to such public teasing. She couldn't have known that _this_ would be the product of her prudently designed plan to distance herself from him for a bit.

She sighs again.

How Naruto doesn’t already know that she likes him is beyond her understanding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!
> 
> Oh, and thank you for all of the sweet comments on the previous chapter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been spending my free time writing these, haha, so I haven't taken the time to reply.
> 
> More to come...


	3. Flirting 101 (or something)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto wants a certain prima ballerina to look his way...  
> High School AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmas Eve where I live! So here's a couple of really awkward teens to set up the season of rosy cheeks...  
> Please enjoy the NaruHina!

It’s only a Monday morning, and she’s already exhausted.

With the Christmas season underway, her company’s been having dance performances at senior care homes, shopping malls, and hotel lobbies across the city for the past two weekends. And although she enjoys it, she also feels like she doesn’t get to _really_ have a weekend.

Iruka, the teacher for their history class, takes a habitual seat on a stool at the front of the room. “Good morning!” he greets, all too cheerily for a Monday. “Tell me about your weekends!”

Of course no one raises their hands. Everyone’s a little slumped over, like she herself is.

“Then I’ll call on a few of you!” The nice thing about this teacher is that he’s never easily deterred by their bad moods. “Let’s see, who haven’t I heard from in awhile...?”

She knows he’s not going to call on her. True, she hasn’t shared about her weekend, but there are lots of students in the class who haven’t, and she never stands out in class anyway.

“Naruto! What did you do this weekend?”

“Ahhh, I don’t really remember…”

Listening to the voice she loves come from two rows behind her, she sits up a bit, just as curious as her teacher. She chances a glance back at him to see that he’s sitting sprawled in his desk, his hands folded to cradle the back of his head.

It’s no wonder the teacher called on him if he’s going to look so much more open to sharing.

“Ahh, well...” he stalls, “...I went Christmas shopping with my mom on Sunday.”

A part inside of her freezes. She faces forward carefully. _There’s no way-_

“Where?” Iruka asks.

“Downtown Konoha Center.”

_There’s just no way-_

“How was that?”

“Boring.”

“Oh, that’s too bad, you don’t like shopping?”

“No, my mom takes _forever_ to shop. We also watched _all_ the Christmas dances at the stage because she wanted to remember the days she used to be a dancer. It was like..ballet and stuff...”

_There’s NO WAY-_

Her teacher sits there nodding his head jovially, and she _cannot possibly_ turn around to see the expression on her crush’s face.

Their voices fade to the background as she sits there trying to unravel the pieces of this newfound information.

No one, not a single one of her friends, has ever seen her dance.

She’s never invited anyone besides her family to watch, and well, they know already anyway because they have to take her to the venue in the first place.

So...Naruto, her crush, has seen her. In her pink tights. In her form-fitting pieces. _Including her solo number!!!!_

And he’s choosing to admit that over anything else he did over the weekend.

In front of everyone.

Or...in front of her…?

Her cheeks feel too hot, and her stomach is squeezing into knots.

He called it…“ _boring”_...?

“Hinata!”

She looks up at her teacher’s call.

“How was your weekend?”

She blinks. She’s never felt so outside of herself before. “It was good.”

“Yeah? What did you do?”

She nods, smiles, and can’t find any words. She shrugs. “I had a good weekend.” What is she supposed to say? That she had an apparently boring dance performance at Downtown Konoha Center yesterday?

Iruka nods and smiles, prodding her to keep talking.

She nods. And smiles more in return. Typical silence for someone as quiet as herself, but otherwise she _would have_ shared like a normal person, but...

She can’t even look at her crush for the rest of the day, otherwise she thinks she’ll faint.

...The thing is...he used to dance. Of course his over-exuberant mother put him in dancing when he was a little kid, and he threw a tantrum about it when he figured out that it’s uncool when everyone else his age was on sports teams.

And...Hinata doesn’t know. At least, he doesn’t think she knows he used to go to her same dance company because that was his mother’s old dance company.

And, he kind of wants her to know. He doesn’t _really_ want her to know, but he wants her to _sort of_ know that he knows...that…or...he wants her to know that...something…

Something.

He wanted to say _something_ , but now he regrets saying something because her reaction was less than anything, it was practically _nothing_ , and he should have just kept his mouth shut because he probably talked too much like he always does, and he probably sounded so uncool anyway, and he should have just not said anything!

She danced really nice. The kind of dancing on her toes that makes him wonder if her feet are actually made of steel.

Like, she was really…

It’s obvious why she had a dance by herself…

She was so…

He doesn’t know what to say, he just wanted to say something about it, and there are words stuck in his chest, but he doesn’t know what they are.

It’s just...something.

Hinata is something, something, something, and this is why no one should let him talk words to people.

He doesn’t speak a word for the rest of the class, otherwise he thinks he’ll bite his tongue open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> I have another Christmas-y one to post veryyy soon.


	4. Merry Kiss-mas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata and Naruto accidentally exchange gifts...  
> Marching Band AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still laughing about this chapter's title. It was my husband's idea haha  
> Christmas themed because it's Christmas Day in France. I think Imanga is from France (I'm assuming O_O,, I didn't ask...). There's still a few more ideas, though, so this isn't the last one for this series.
> 
> Please enjoy the NaruHina nonsense!

Night falls on Konoha, but the park sounds far from empty. The light and round tones of flutes and clarinets crowd the air, followed by the boisterous blasts of trombones, contrabass, and of course, their own, wonderfully noisy section, the trumpets. They warm up their embouchures with willy nilly sounds, trying to keep boredom at bay as they wait for the Christmas parade to start.

Hinata, like any girl in love, looks for a reason to interact with her crush. And the most recent, popular excuse the section has to come together is to learn the notes to the Super Mario Theme Song.

Yes, Naruto figured out how to play the song on his own time, thinking he’d earn some funny points and good attention from his friends. He did not expect Hinata to be so into it. He doesn’t think she even plays video games, but then again, she doesn’t seem like the typical type who would have chosen to play trumpet in the first place.

So, he figures he shouldn’t be that surprised that she would want to learn this, too. She’s always doing unexpected things. Plus, he’s _not_ going to complain about having her attention, learning from _him_ , and treating him like he’s such a good player.

She stands closely by him so that she can copy his fingering, and they play together the first few bars that he taught her. At the end, she draws the trumpet away from her face, and he can see her smile sparkling at him in the dark.

“Yeahh!” he cheers, “That’s it! You wanna learn the next part?”

“Mhm! Thank you for teaching me.”

“No problem!”

“Twenty minutes!” Kurenai, their marching band instructor, calls out loudly over the din. “Make sure you all go to the bathroom before the parade starts! Take a partner!”

She doesn’t really want to use the park bathroom at night, but she thinks it might be a good idea to go. “Actually, Naruto-kun, I think I should go to the bathroom.”

“Oh, okay. I should go, too.”

In the dark, they find spots on the sidewalk to leave their instruments out of the way.

Hinata asks Sakura to go with her, too, and pretty soon, especially with Naruto heading over, the whole trumpet section is putting their instruments down for a bathroom break.

When she comes back, she automatically searches for her crush in the dark.

He’s skipping adorably over to their trumpets, and his energy is so infectious, she can’t help smiling as he finds his and immediately starts playing the silly Mario song again.

Hinata looks carefully at the trumpets. She thought she put hers down next to Naruto’s, so judging by the space, hers _should_ be...this one… She squints at the instruments in the dark. The shine of this trumpet doesn’t really look like hers.

Sakura picks her own trumpet up, her other section mates pick theirs up, and very quickly, the only one left on the ground is the one that she thought should be hers.

Shrugging her uncertainty away, she picks it up and starts rehearsing the song they’re about to play for the next hour on repeat as they march down the street. Her pointer and ring finger sink into the keys, but…

The give is not quite right. The weight of the whole instrument isn’t quite the same, either. She tests the keys, pushing them down, considering the pressure and landing against the instrument, and…

This isn’t her trumpet.

Her eyes immediately go to Naruto, who’s in his own world, playing his own thing. No, it can’t be. He’d notice...right?

She asks each person, to very certain answers that they have the right one, or they put their trumpets down _over there_ , not over _there_ , and she’s coming to the very unfortunate conclusion that…

“Um, Naruto-kun?”

“Hm? Yeah? You ready for the next part?”

“Um. No, I think…” Her heart is so heavy with stress, and her skin feels so hot, and she’s just glad that it’s too dark for him to see her inflamed cheeks.

He looks at her curiously, and he looks at the trumpet in his hands, where her gaze is focused. “Is something wrong?”

“I think I have your trumpet,” she finally manages to say. She holds it up for him to look at it.

He gapes. He looks at the one in her hands, he looks at the one in his hands. He thought something felt off…

They quickly switch instruments, and she presses the keys, everything suddenly _right_ with the world.

He’s doing the same, muttering, “Oh...oh yeah…”

“Hey,” Sakura says, coming up to them from behind, “did you find yours?”

“Oh, yes-”

Naruto tests his, playing a few notes aloud, finding all of it easier. “Sorry, Hinata! You’re right. This one’s mine!”

Hinata’s mouth is dropped completely open.

He stares at her, trying to figure out this new expression.

“Um, I…” She replays in her head how he so nonchalantly put his lips on where her lips had been, and how her lips had been where _his_ lips had been. How does she tell him that she didn’t wipe off his mouthpiece, yet?? “Naruto-kun…”

Sakura smiles _hugely_ at them and then starts snickering.

Naruto tries to figure out what else could be wrong, but he has no idea as to why Sakura would be laughing about this. Maybe he’s just not taking this seriously enough. “I’m really sorry, Hinata. I thought I grabbed mine. I guess I couldn’t see in the dark.”

“Oh no, that’s not,...it’s okay, Naruto-kun, I, I couldn’t see, either.” She decides right then and there that she’s not going to tell him.

Sakura bursts out laughing. “I don’t think that’s why Hinata is so shocked, Naruto!” She giggles some more, and Hinata turns to her with wide eyes.

“Sakura-chan-”

“Didn’t you play his a little, Hinata?”

“Only a little!” She averts her eyes.

“Oh.” Naruto stares at the top of Hinata’s head, and figures it out. Everything. Out. “Oh. Oh. It’s okay.”

“...Okay,” she whispers, nods, chances a look up at him, and for once, she notices that _he’s_ the one who can’t look her in the eyes. The heat doubles down on her face, and she flees to Ino in the flute section.

Sakura stands there, laughing.

“It’s _not_ funny!” Naruto bumps her arm, but she only laughs harder. “Stoop!” he whines and then groans, “You have to be kidding me…”

Sakura looks like she’s going to hyperventilate when she pauses between hiccuping giggles. “I switched the instruments.” She bursts into laughter again.

“You WHAT.” He turns on her with a raging heat at his face, and despite everything, he almost wants to smile, but he’s squashing that urge with every fiber of his being.

“I didn’t think you actually _wouldn’t_ notice, you doofus!”

“SAKURA!”

“WHO _doesn’t_ notice?? You can’t blame me!”

“But what about Hinata?! I spit all over her instrument! And we left all our cleaning supplies in the bus!!”

She gives the most evil laugh, yet, and giggles out, “Merry Christmas to both of you!”

“Huh?! That’s not- That’s…”

“I knew it! I knew it!” She’s clapping, totally giving herself an applause, and even through his denials, she’s completely not listening.

Against his better judgment, his eyes search for her in the shadowed crowd as he turns Sakura's words over in his head. There’s no way Hinata likes him...right? She’s really cute, and he’s really not…

Light eyes that shine even in the dark turn directly at him, locking his searching gaze for a solid second, his heart leaping into his throat, and he turns away.

He's never felt so close to dying before.

“Uuhh-huh!” Sakura intones, way too knowingly.

“Shut up!”

“You _liiike_ her.” 

“No, I don’t!”

“Yes, you do. You liked your present, didn't you,” Sakura practically sings.

“Noo! No!" He didn't think he was obvious about Hinata! "Go away already! Go torture someone else!”

“I’m just trying to help! You know, next year, maybe I’ll figure out a way to get you a real kiss from Hinata.”

“NO! I don’t want it!”

“What, yes, you do.” She sounds way too self-assured for him to even dream of changing her mind.

Naruto makes a note to himself that he needs to stay away from Sakura at all costs.

And that if he can’t...

Maybe...next Christmas...

No, that's impossible, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!


End file.
